Another completed house concept

We have recently completed the initial concept design for a three bedroom two storey home which is to be built in Nong Wua So, near Udon Thani. Our client came to us with an initial design of a home which they liked, but wanted the floor plans and exterior styling developed further into something that more suited their style and requirements. We have worked with them to produce the final design concept that you see below. We are now busy with the structural engineering and planning phase and hope to have a complete set of plans and documentation ready by the end of August. Construction is due to begin in early September.

Site preparation for an exciting new project

After a long period of design, development and refinement, we are now set to begin construction of this spectacular luxury home and guesthouse in Sangkhom.  Over the past week we have been preparing the site by clearing the land, building a temporary camp and materials store, and also ensuring good road access to the site.   The main building structure is to be situated on top of the 3 meter high raised section of land you can see in the pictures below.  The actual structure will sit on top of a large number of piles, driven 15m into the ground below.  You can see in the pictures below that we have marked the position of all of the piles.  Piling is scheduled to begin on 16th August but in the mean time we have to prepare a temporary earthwork ramp up to the raised area of land to give access to the large piling crane that will be used.   It will take approximately 2 weeks to add in all of the piles, though piling work will stop for 19th August when the official Buddhist ceremony will be held at which time the first two columns of the house will be erected.

Roofing and rendering

According to our initial building schedule, this project would have been nearing completion by now.  However, due to circumstances outside the control of either us or our client, work on the 4 bedroom home in Thip Thani had all but stopped for over 2 months.  With our client's situation now resolved, work has begun again and we working hard to get the project back on track.  Tiling of the roof is nearly finished as is the external rendering.  By the end of the week, internal rendering should also be complete and we will begin adding the exterior architectural detailing to the home.

Hotel Reception Interior Design

We have completed the interior design concept for the hotel reception and are still working on the coffee shop, main restaurant and the standard rooms and suites.

Hotel exterior styling and interior layout finalised

We have now finalised the exterior styling and interior layout for the design of the new "LiveInn Hotel" building.  Although the general style of the design has remained largely unchanged from the initial concept I prepared, the building has grown in size, from six storeys to eight stories.  The ground floor will be for parking and the mechanical room.  Second floor will house the reception, coffee shop, gym and conference facilities.  There will then be 5 floors of accommodation, each consisting of 14 standard rooms and two suites, 80 rooms in total.  On the top floor there will be a large restaurant and some hotel services areas.

Having finalised the architectural design, our engineers are now progressing with the structural engineering of the building. With the client, we are now turning our attention to the detailed interior design work.   We are hoping to have the interior design complete by mid August, which will then allow us to move on to detailed electrical and plumbing engineering and other hotel services.

We are aiming for an initial draft drawing set ready for review in September.

Exterior redesign and structural engineering

As I wrote in a previous post, with this project we had completed a very rough concept and were on hold untl our client found an appropriate plot of land.  Well, they have now secured a plot of land in Thip Thani.  This will actually be our fourth construction project in this increasingly popular 'Moo Baan', located about 5km outside Nong Khai town center.

It can be difficult to design a house without knowing the position, orientation and size of land on which it is to be built.  However, in this case the size and layout of the initial design fit perfectly onto the clients chosen plot.  However, I have substantial redesigned the exterior styling of the home following further consultation with our client.  The architectural design work is now complete and we have now commenced the structural engineering work in order to produce a full set of construction drawings.

We are planning to begin construction some time in August.

Interior & exterior rendering almost complete

We have now almost finished the interior and exterior rendering of our project in Nong Kom Ko.  The next step will be to begin installing the suspended gypsum ceiling and the bathroom tiling and fitting.  As I mentioned in a previous post, tiling in the rest of the house and carpentry work will be carried out by third party contractors.

Modern style two storey two bedroom home concept

I have just completed this very rough concept for a two storey two bedroom home, which I was asked to prepare. There is no fixed schedule for construction, though, as the client is still looking for the right plot of land on which to build.   It is for this reason that I call the design a 'very rough' concept, as a lot could change depending on the chosen plot of land.  Not least the size and shape, but also the orientation of the land would play a big part in the design with regard to positioning of windows for best views and allowances for protection from solar heat.

Roof completed, block work nearly finished

The roof is now on and some of the architectural features in the roof area have also been cast in concrete.  We are a couple of days away from finishing all of the block work and installing the windows.  After the block work is complete and the walls have been rendered we will then begin adding the the remaining architectural detailing.

With this project, the terms of the contract we such that we would be carrying out all works except the carpentry work and tiling, which will be carried out by a friend of the owner. (We will, however be tiling the bathrooms to facilitate installation of bathroom fittings.)  As such, the beautiful wooden window and door frames have been supplied to us for installation and we can not take credit for the excellent craftsmanship of them in this case!

Initial hotel design concept

We have completed our initial concept for the exterior of the hotel and will now work with the client to refine our design.  We have already begun this process of refinement and whilst the main accommodation section of the building is likely to remain much as it is shown, the smaller block that houses the reception, restaurant and conference rooms and so on, is likely to evolve considerably as we move towards a final design.  At the moment, I am working on redesigning the main entrance, in particular.

As for the interior, the actual layout of the floors of the main accommodation block is more or less finalised.  Each floor has 14 standard rooms and two suites with lounge, kitchenette, bedroom and bathroom.  A total of 80 rooms over 5 floors.  However, establishing the layout is the easy part.  The next stage will be to carry out all of the engineering work to integrate all of the services into the design and also the physical interior design work.